The notion of alcabala comes from the Hispanic Arabic alqabála . The term refers to the tax that, in ancient times , the sellers had to pay in a sales contract and the two parties in an exchange contract .
The alcabala, therefore, was a tribute that taxed a commercial activity. It was a percentage of the sale price that the person had to pay to the treasury.
At a general level, the alcabala was a tax of universal application. However, it was common for exceptions to be granted, so the application of the tax was not so strict in practice.
In Castile , the collection of alcabalas was imposed from the Cortes of Burgos in 1342 . The intention was to solve the Algeciras campaign. At first it was applied in Burgos and then it was extended to the rest of the towns in León and Castilla .
As it is an indirect tax, the way it is collected changed. The taxes were collected through collectors, by heading and by leasing to individuals.
In its first implementations, the alcabala was local in nature and was administered by the councils , the neighborhood assemblies that were involved in the government of their localities. The councils existed in the Iberian Peninsula during the Early Middle Ages , in the kingdoms belonging to Christianity. As early as the 11th century , the local alcabala can be seen, and it is estimated that it was created taking as an example an older example from Muslim Spain.
Some experts on the subject believe that the alcabala could have emerged in the Roman Empire and remained in force in the Visigothic era . With respect to its characteristics at a technical level, and based on the most solid evidence of its oldest use, this tax began to be calculated based on "things disposed of" for 5 percent of their value; Later, the percentage doubled, although mainly in theory, since in practice it was usually lower.
Currently the checkpoint still exists. In Peru , the alcabala tax is levied on real estate purchase and sale operations. The buyer of the property is the one who must pay it, the tax base being the transfer value.
Peruvian legislation contemplates several exceptions. The first sale of the property carried out by a construction company and transfers due to death do not pay the alcabala, to mention two cases.
According to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ), on the other hand, in Venezuela and Colombia the police post that is located at the exit of a highway or a city is known as alcabala.
It is important to make a clarification regarding the terms tax and lien , so necessary when defining alcabala . The first should not be confused with its homophone record : homophonous words sound exactly the same although their spelling and meaning are different. Nor should we make the mistake - quite common, by the way - of marking the word tax in the penultimate syllable, since it is grave ending in N.
Regarding its etymology, we can see that this term derives from the Spanish Arabic al-qabala , which can be translated as "the contract , the tax that was agreed with the treasury." In turn, this arose in the Arabic habála , which is a "fishing net." Other words that share the origin are the following:
* gabela : a tax that must be paid to the State;
* tax collector : the person who must collect the taxes, that is, his or her job consists of the activity of collecting the tax;
* alcabalatorio : the book in which the rules regarding the collection and distribution of alcabalas are recorded.